Pennsylvania teen, 19, to make history as the first black woman to ever play in top tier of US polo after discovering it by accident 12 years ago
By Associated Press and Mary Kekatos For Dailymail.com
Published: 14:06 EDT, 29 June 2017 | Updated: 17:55 EDT, 29 June 2017
A Pennsylvania teenager will make history as the first black woman to ever play in the top tier of US polo.
Shariah Harris, 19, from southwest Philadelphia, who plays collegiately at Cornell University in New York, will mount up Friday for the Postage Stamp Farm polo team in the Silver Cup tournament at the Greenwich Polo Club in Connecticut.
Brenda Lynn, a spokeswoman for the Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame, said Shariah will be playing a form of polo known as high-goal polo, which refers to the players’ handicap – or numerical measure of potential ability.
Players are rated on a scale from minus-two to 10. Minus-two indicates a novice player, while a player rated at 10 shows the highest handicap possible.
She said the stares, the inappropriate comments and the whispering that comes with being a black woman playing polo can be discouraging at times, but it won’t stop her from riding.
‘If me playing will mean opportunities to play for other kids like me, then I’m perfectly happy to be breaking down doors,’ Shariah said.
‘I just keep quiet, put on my boots and go out and play.’
Shariah said she would not be playing polo or even riding horses if her mother, Sharmell, had not made a wrong turn while driving in Philadelphia 12 years ago.
She ended up on a dead-end road at a barn and riding ring in Fairmount Park where other minority children were on horses.
It turned out to be the home of the Work to Ride program, a nonprofit organization that teaches urban kids from low-income homes to ride and gets them involved in equestrian events.
To be part of the program, the kids work in the stables, muck out the stalls and groom the horses.
‘As a mother of three children on a single income, I saw it as an opportunity to make their lives better,’ said Sharmell, who ended up moving her family from southwest Philadelphia to Upper Darby, a few miles away.
‘Instead of a soccer mom, I became a barn mom.’

This undated photo provided by the Work to Ride program shows 19-year-old Shariah Harris playing polo at the Polo Club in Lancaster, Pa. Harris, who grew up in single-parent home just outside of west Philadelphia, is set to become the first African American woman to play in a top-tier U.S. polo event when she mounts up Friday, June 30, 2017, for the Postage Stamp Farm polo team in the Silver Cup at the tony Greenwich Polo Club in Connecticut. (Lezlie Hiner/Work to Ride via AP)
https://www.facebook.com/viralthread/videos/1278922258916280/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED
That is so cute😍😍
https://twitter.com/dcpoll/status/883824906215051267
Awe
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/883810523132960769
https://twitter.com/AmarAmarasingam/status/883835812370153472
https://twitter.com/dandrezner/status/883796864654610432
I love Despicable Me…1,2, and 3…LOL
So frightening. So scary. I ache for Dejuan’s family and loved ones.
*tears*
https://twitter.com/TheRoot/status/883823074168242176
https://twitter.com/CivilRightsCntr/status/883460622863798272
From article linked in above tweet:
So dear.
https://twitter.com/planetepics/status/883472705785397248
https://twitter.com/EarthPix/status/882989395401375744
https://twitter.com/EarthPix/status/879003004086738944
https://twitter.com/BlackJulieKnows/status/883814076723453954
https://twitter.com/Crystal1Johnson/status/883765565524987905
https://twitter.com/Crystal1Johnson/status/883766598884089856
I looked for her twitter page and found it! Here is more of her art. I will add extra under “reply” here.
https://twitter.com/ohsocerena/status/836380731802779648
https://twitter.com/ohsocerena/status/872247147856621568
https://twitter.com/ohsocerena/status/831568825078386691
wow
She’s very talented. I suspect she’ll do very well in the art world.
https://twitter.com/Crystal1Johnson/status/883787412698255360
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/883809885028327424
https://twitter.com/APEastRegion/status/883724902842466309
Idiot wants war with one billion Muslims. Backwoods ass clown. SIT DOWN! No one is afraid of your hillbilly ass.
https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/883784028209500160
Altemeyer on Trump’s Supporters
7 Jul 2017 John Dean
When writing my book Conservatives Without Conscience (Penguin, 2007) about the authoritarianism that was gaining influence in the Republican Party in the early 2000s, I read most everything that social scientists had to say about folks with such dispositions. Particularly helpful was psychology professor Bob Altemeyer’s book for Harvard University Press, The Authoritarian Specter (1996). No one has done more ground-breaking work in testing the nature of these people than this professor, who was then at the University of Manitoba in Canada. A native of St. Louis who had done his graduate work at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Bob is also a keen student of American politics. Indeed, his son is in the business in Canada, and a member of the Manitoba Legislature.
I thought it would be helpful to many Americans to be exposed to Bob’s scholarly studies, and convinced him to write them up in a book for the general reader. He did, and placed it online for anyone to read for free. See The Authoritarians. (Last time I checked, over 670,000 people had visited the book, and hopefully read it!)
https://verdict.justia.com/2017/07/07/altemeyer-trumps-supporters
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/883710532384980992
RIOTING & LOOTERS
But the’re white though!
https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/883703886858649602
https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/883704031285305348
bwa ha ha ha ha
https://twitter.com/robinthede/status/883631830662094848
Fabulous!!!
https://twitter.com/TheDailyEdge/status/883696242601205760
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/883692438044516353
https://twitter.com/RudawEnglish/status/883657088152612864
LOOK AT THIS, FOLKS!
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/883673285422182400
WTF
That orange POS ain’t right in the head & he’s not healthy. no energy, no stamina, no intellect. And has the bimbo daughter sitting there . I.CAN’T
Are there any US photographer there? who took that pic of the her?
lips pursed
https://twitter.com/shomaristone/status/883683726005338112
https://twitter.com/shomaristone/status/883664097199501312
This is too adorable.
What a kissable little baby!
Baby’s like “yeah, I’m in the arms of my POTUS.” Too cute
Good Morning, Everyone 😐 😐😐
Good Morning, Everyone.